The first time I saw Rachel Weisz was on a street in Edinburgh
during the theater festival. A student at Cambridge University,
she was wearing dungarees and handing out leaflets for her
play. I hid behind a lamppost and stared because I thought
she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I thought
she looked like the ghost of a Russian princess (in fact,
her parents are Hungarian). When, a few years later, she became
a star of the British stage and screen, in Noël Coward's play
Design for Living and films like Swept from the Sea and I
Want You, one newspaper labeled her "disturbingly exotic"
which is polite code for "she doesn't look British."

Hollywood soon came calling and she took the role of Keanu
Reeves' brainy love interest in the stinky Chain Reaction.
Creating her own sub-genre, she again played the intellectual
sex bomb in an action movie in The Mummy, the sequel to which
appears this summer. In the coming months, she also stars
in Beautiful Creatures, which has been called a Scottish Thelma
and Louise, and Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy at the Gates,
co-starring Joe Fiennes, Jude Law, and Ed Harris.

Like her heroine, Liz Taylor, she has eyes of such blazing
intensity that they seem almost alien. When I became friends
with her, I realized she is almost alien — at least within
her chosen profession: Rachel is a fiercely intelligent and
lateral thinker whose greatest pleasure is to ask questions
of others, whether cab driver, student, politician or sales
lady at the cosmetics counter. She has found an equal in boyfriend
Sam Mendes, award-winning director of Cabaret and American
Beauty. I suspect that what binds them is, no matter how revered
and "in" they become, both retain the sensibility
of outsiders.

EMMA: When we were at the drugstore
you innocently opened up Talk Magazine and I heard a shriek
of dismay.
RACHEL: Yeah, I literally saw not only the most disgusting,
but the most ridiculous photograph I've ever seen of any woman.EMMA: And who was it of?
RACHEL: It was me. [laughs] It was me photographed by David
Bailey, who had some kind of concept that because it was for
a Russian film, I would be wearing a Russian hat. But you
can't really see the hat, just fur everywhere. And my nose
looks like it's … just a really outsized nose, you know.EMMA: But, you see, you're holding back from saying
what you said at the store, which was that you thought you
looked too Jewish. Is it limiting as an actress to be perceived
as being too ethnic in any way?
RACHEL: Well, I think you and I have always felt the same
way — that we're Jewish but we can get away with just being
exotic. We're kind of Jews in disguise. Those cultural stereotypes
about the Jew with the big hooky nose and the fleshy face
rub off on you. That's terrible to admit, isn't it.EMMA: Well, it's that Jackie Mason joke about how
no Jewish woman wants to look Jewish: "'You think I look
maybe a little Italian, I look a little Russian, perhaps I
can be Spanish?' … 'You look Jewish!'"
RACHEL: Hollywood's run by Jews. I was advised by an American
agent when I was about 19 to change my surname. And I said
"Why? Jews run Hollywood." He said "Exactly."
He had a theory that all the executives think acting's a job
for shiksas.EMMA: Of all the self-loathing Jews in the world,
the most self-loathing are the Hollywood Jews. They don't
want to see images of themselves on screen. That's why Lauren
Bacall had to hide her identity, and Winona Ryder changed
her name from Horowitz.
RACHEL: In some way acting is prostitution, and Hollywood
Jews don't want their own women to participate. Also, there's
an element of Portnoy's Complaint — they all fancy Aryan blondes.EMMA: For Beautiful Creatures, in which you play a
battered woman and trophy girlfriend, you had to go blonde.
You're such an über-brunette; did you find you lost your sense
of self?
RACHEL: Completely. The last day of shooting, I went home
to see my father and stepmother. She rang me the next day
and said, "I never want to see that girl ever again.
The girl who came to our house was like a horrendous, vulgar
Spice Girl." EMMA: Who are you a big fan of?
RACHEL: Denis Leary.EMMA: Why are comedians so sexy?
RACHEL: They just are.EMMA: I think it's because laughing is an allegory
for orgasms. It's something you can't help doing.
RACHEL: You can't stop yourself coming. Not once you start.
It's also that comedians don't have the kind of narcissism
that actors have. They're writers who perform their own material.
It's more interesting. And they're sexy because they risk
more. Stand-up comedians risk more than anyone.EMMA: When you were at Cambridge, you started your
own theater company. How was that?
RACHEL: Amazing. We went to the Edinburgh Festival three times.
Just me and another girl, Sasha Hales were the performers.
We wrote about eight plays together, we went through the whole
gamut of what two people can do onstage with each other. That
was the happiest time of my life creatively. The best one
we did was called Slight Possession.EMMA: I remember it. I remember being … I have to
say, very intimidated by how you look. Are you aware that
you intimidate women sometimes?
RACHEL: If I'm just in dungarees, I don't think I would intimidate
anyone. If I went out in killer heels and full makeup, blow
dry, the whole thing — anyone dressed up like that could be
intimidating to men and women, really. It's so, look at me.
Do you know what I mean? But I love women. EMMA: What is it? The sound of their voice, how they
look?
RACHEL: I like their heads, I like the way they think.EMMA: Women think like jazz.
RACHEL: They're stream-of-consciousness. They'll improvise,
and they're happy if someone brings in a new beat. Whereas
men are very point-A-to-point-B. They just want to get there.EMMA: I think that's the reason you never survived
in Los Angeles, why you had to go home. The driving thing.
You'd never have an adventure along the way. If you were going
to point B …
RACHEL: Yeah.EMMA: You had to leave from point A, and nothing could
happen in between. Whereas in New York or in London, you're
walking somewhere and crazy shit happens on the way. Tell
me about those months in L.A.
RACHEL: I went into quite a major depression. I was watching
so many daytime TV shows. And then I would get in my car and
drive to these auditions listening to the radio. I feel sick
now when I listen to the radio, all these commercials for
different car dealers. I just felt like the world was so desperate
and lonely and sad and people were trying to sell cars and
no one wanted to buy them.EMMA: [question about LA]
RACHEL: My friend was saying that no one flirts there. Like
at the traffic light when you're stopped. People are very
focused on their own thing. I don't mean just sexual flirting,
but verbal flirting. In L.A., unless you've just won an Oscar
or you're Mr. Studio Head, no one talks to you. Even at parties.
I was at this big Hollywood party; no one looked. Everyone
is blinkered and they just kind of scan the room for anyone
important. L.A. makes you feel ugly.EMMA: Really?
RACHEL: Because if you're an actress, no one pays you any
attention. And you immediately start thinking, God, I must
have a nose job. [laughs] Or, I must get that boob job, or
I must get that lipo … whatever it is.EMMA: You have these two parallel careers going on
where you do these strange, wonderful, bizarre art films and
then you have this big breakout with The Mummy.
RACHEL: Breakout sounds like coming out with acne. [laughs]EMMA: When I was in London, I went to visit you on
the set of The Mummy II.
RACHEL: In my Fleetwood Mac outfit.EMMA: You looked like Stevie Nicks. And I remember
you were having a hard time caring about the person who played
your character's child.
RACHEL: Yeah, I didn't feel emotionally connected to him.
EMMA: You were trying to method-act your way into
giving a damn whether he lived or died. [laughs]
RACHEL: It was very hard because we were up against that blue
screen.EMMA: There's a lot of jiggery-pokery and special
effects. Is working with all those effects a little de-humanizing?
RACHEL: It can certainly feel quite mechanical. You have to
talk into thin air and imagine that there are 10,000 Pygmies
running at you. But you have to remember how you used your
imagination as a child.EMMA: You told me that you think the best you've ever
been was when you did Suddenly, Last Summer on stage in London,
which was last year?
RACHEL: Yeah. That's the best acting I've ever done. EMMA: Why?
RACHEL: Because I completely connected with the character.
This is really terrible to say, because Catherine is a woman
who's a little bit unstable and hysterical. She's been pimping
for her cousin Sebastian, attracting boys on the beach in
Tunisia.EMMA: Tennessee Williams had to hide any hints whatsoever
of homosexuality.
RACHEL: It's not explicit because it was written in the '30s.
No one ever says he was homosexual. It's completely obvious,
but no one actually spells it out. She's kind of in love with
him actually. That's the real tragedy of it. I've been in
love with gay men.EMMA: Is that because you get to be admired without
having sex?
RACHEL: Definitely. You develop this incredible intimacy that
isn't going to lead to sex, but can be very sexual. That's
something I find liberating. Also, because gay men don't fit
into any received notions of family, they have to rethink
everything. I find that they are often completely original.EMMA: Isn't it funny that the currency of Hollywood
is sex, but the people there are mostly so unsexy?
RACHEL: Right. False tits, collagen lips, people dressing
very sexually, but it's a completely sanitized sexuality.
It's boring and unreal. There's not much room for eccentricity
in Hollywood, and eccentricity is what's sexy in people. I
think London's sexy because it's so full of eccentrics.EMMA: Brendan Fraser, who stars with you in The Mummy,
seemed very nice. And you said a really funny thing. You said,
"He's just like pornography."
RACHEL: He's got a pornographic body. He's so massive — he
doesn't look that big on screen. I don't mean fat, I mean
muscular. He's six-foot-three and his thighs …EMMA: Tell me about Brendan Fraser's thighs. [laughs]
RACHEL: They're enormous. He wears tight, jodphur-y trousers
with big boots and his costumes are all really sexy. And that
big back rippling under the shirt. EMMA: It was just before I saw you that you filmed
Enemy at the Gates, the new Jean-Jacques Annaud movie. What's
it about?
RACHEL: The seizure of Stalingrad. The civilians and soldiers
got together and defended the city against the Nazis, against
all odds. Jude Law and Joe Fiennes play two Russians who both
fall in love with me. I pick Jude, and we end up together.
EMMA: Good choice. Who did you click with the most
on that film?
RACHEL: I really clicked as an actor with Jude. We both come
from theater, and in theater you have to give as much as you
take. Movie actors get used to close-ups and it all becomes
monologue. But Jude is right there with you every second of
the way. EMMA: Can we say — just because it's bizarre — where
we're doing this interview?
RACHEL: Yeah, I think we should.EMMA: Okay. We're in Los Angeles. Last time you were
having such an awful time here. Now you're with Sam. Is it
weird? I mean, he is the fucking daddy at the moment. Do people
get on bended knee at his feet?
RACHEL: Well, I don't know, because he works all day. The
other night we were at a bar and these people were turned
around staring at him, whispering and pointing, really going
overboard. Then as we were leaving, we looked back at the
table behind us, and it was Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband
David E. Kelley.EMMA: (Question....)
RACHEL: Yeah, and we were like, "that's L.A." They
weren't looking at Sam at all, they were looking at Michelle
Pfeiffer at the table behind us.EMMA: (Question....)
RACHEL: The thing that happens is, if Sam pays, the waiters
will see his name on the card and they'll just say, "I
loved that movie." It's quite earnest and nice. He doesn't
go in for that big Hollywood scene. EMMA: So what kind of cowboy boots are you gonna buy
on Monday?
RACHEL: I like the idea of the short ones because they're
so unusual, like ankle length. And either black with red tips
or the camel color with brown tips.EMMA: They're very Angelina Jolie.
RACHEL:She's gorgeous. They wanted me to go and meet her to
play her sister.EMMA: What does your family think of all this? Are
they disappointed you haven't had a more academic career?
RACHEL: No. Although my mother would have liked it if I was
a doctor and a movie star at the same time because mum's greedy.
Dad always says that my personality has been irrevocably malformed
by acting, so that I'm now unsuitable to anything else. He's
sort of joking and sort of not.EMMA: Your dad's an inventor?
RACHEL:Yeah.EMMA: And your stepmum's a psychiatrist?
RACHEL: And my mum's a psychiatrist.EMMA: Do you think you're more or less well-adjusted
for having grown up around all this psychoanalysis?
RACHEL: The thing is, I feel like I'm more well-adjusted,
but I think that's an illusion.